http://www.yourdog.co.uk 23Cavaliers can be prone to heart
disease, which can cause coughing.!
March 2020
booked in for a cough, but I had very diferent
concerns for her. Ruby was diagnosed with mitral
valve deiciency a year ago and had responded
well to medication. But now Ruby’s owner was
concerned as the Cavalier was coughing most days,
and she was worried that Ruby’s heart problem was
getting worse. I listened carefully to Ruby’s chest,
but it wasn’t giving me too many
clues. There were no bubbly or
crackly sounds, but the recent talk
had reminded me that a lack of
abnormal noises doesn’t mean
there is no problem in the lungs!
I admitted Ruby for an
ultrasound to check her heart,
and X-rays to examine the
lungs. Comparing the X-rays to
the ones from a year ago, we
could see that the medication
had reduced the size of
Ruby’s heart and it wasn’t
pressing on the airways,
which is a common cause of
coughing in heart disease
patients. They also showed
no accumulation of luid
in the lungs, again good
news. What we found was
bronchial disease, which is
common in older dogs.
I started Ruby on extra
medication to open up her airways, and I hope
that her cough will reduce soon. I have also
recommended that Ruby’s owners avoid taking her
for walks when the weather is very cold, and highly
scented cleaning products and air-fresheners, which
could irritate her airways.
All this month’s coughs have been easy to
treat, but that isn’t always the case. Spaniel
Lucy had a cough that lingered for several
weeks despite antibiotics. Lucy was referred
to a specialist hospital, which did a CT scan
and then an endoscopy, to remove a large
barley awn from her airways.
And not all cases of lung disease have
the cough you might expect; when another
spaniel collapsed at the beach, we X-rayed
his chest expecting heart disease, but
instead found many large tumours, yet he
never coughed at all.while asking Bobby’s owner some questions. He
was overdue his vaccinations because of his owner’s
ill health, and had been to the groomer’s the previous
week.
Bobby was his usual bright self, other than the
cough, but his owner was alarmed because he was
coughing so violently he was making himself sick.
Bobby had a slightly raised temperature and a tender
throat, but his heart rate and breathing pattern were
normal and he was up-to-date with his lungworm
prevention, so I made a presumptive diagnosis of
kennel cough.
Bobby’s owner was expecting a course of
antibiotics, because that’s what her old vet always
prescribed, but I explained that, in most cases,
a virus was to blame, and that healthy dogs would
ight the infection without antibiotics. To reduce
the inlammation in Bobby’s airways and reduce
his coughing, I prescribed an anti-inlammatory,
and suggested soft food, which would be more
comfortable for him to swallow.MOST INFECTIOUS
Although I expected Bobby’s cough to clear up
quite quickly, I warned his owner to come back
if the cough was getting worse, Bobby seemed
unwell, or if it hadn’t gone away in two weeks. I also
recommended Bobby stayed away from other dogs
for two weeks after his cough had stopped. Dogs are
most infectious in the early stages of the illness, but,
occasionally, shedding can persist for several months,
which is why kennel cough is so hard to avoid.
One of the questions I asked Bobby’s owner was
about lungworm prevention, as this is another
common cause of coughing in younger dogs. The
South East, where I practise, is a high-risk area for
lungworm so we recommend monthly preventative
treatment. In dogs where we suspect lungworm
infection, we might take faecal and blood samples
to conirm the infection, but I usually start treatment
while waiting for the results, as lungworm can cause
fatal bleeding disorders.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Ruby was alsoLucy’s cough was caused
by a three-inch-long barley
awn stuck in her airways.